NFL aspirations alive and kicking at Australian punting academy

MELBOURNE, Sept 8 : Once an amateur club soccer field on the outskirts of Melbourne, the Monbulk Recreational Reserve's stretch of artificial turf is now an unlikely nursery for Australian teenagers with dreams of making the National Football League. 

Three days before the country stages its first regular-season NFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, dozens of teens assembled on a sunny Tuesday to practise punting an American football in a programme run by specialist academy Prokick Australia.

The NFL set up its Australia and New Zealand academy on the Gold Coast in 2024 but Prokick has been training young athletes to become elite punters and place-kickers for nearly 20 years.

Despite notable success stories, it retains a decidedly DIY aesthetic under owner Nathan Chapman, a former Green Bay Packers signee. Chapman hand-painted the yard-lines on the pitch himself after the local soccer club left to train on a new field.

Prokick's students get changed in the open on concrete steps by one side of the reserve. The old changing rooms were pulled down because of a termite infestation, Chapman explains.

The American football helmets were bought second-hand for cheap and the shoulder pads worn by some of the players may or may not fit them properly.

"So when they get across (to the United States), they go, 'Oh, this is what actual pads that fit are like.' They get a bit of a surprise," Chapman told Reuters.

AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL

None of the students appear fazed by the no-frills setup as they go through their drills.

What is far more important to them is Prokick's record of securing scholarships at American universities via their football programmes. College football is the usual stepping stone to an NFL career.

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